Comments on: The biggest, craziest, gee-whizziest science stories of 2012http://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/the-biggest-craziest-gee-whizziest-science-stories-of-2012/
Canada's national weekly current affairs magazineMon, 03 Aug 2015 00:23:56 +0000hourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.2.2By: ertyuiohttp://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/the-biggest-craziest-gee-whizziest-science-stories-of-2012/#comment-1038531
Sat, 29 Dec 2012 15:07:00 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=330315#comment-1038531I have always been told global warming was always a scam Just another way to bring tons of money into government hands. similar to Y2K bug that was going to shut down all computers, put power out and the airplanes were all going to fall from the sky. Money Money Money. You have it all right, These are the kind of articles that need to be front page.
]]>By: Thwimhttp://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/the-biggest-craziest-gee-whizziest-science-stories-of-2012/#comment-1038529
Sun, 23 Dec 2012 06:00:00 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=330315#comment-1038529Which is better, a kid burning themselves on a hot stove, or staying away from it because of a crazy clown that scared them once?

Best is the kid avoiding it for the right reasons, sure. But I’ll take the crazy clown over the burnt kid any day of the week.

]]>By: A thermodynamicisthttp://www.macleans.ca/society/technology/the-biggest-craziest-gee-whizziest-science-stories-of-2012/#comment-1038527
Sun, 23 Dec 2012 01:47:00 +0000http://www2.macleans.ca/?p=330315#comment-1038527I have to take issue for item #4 on your list, that of “waking up to climate change”. This is not a story driven by science but by a misunderstanding of the science of climate by the public at large.

You mention 3 items as triggers for this “awakening”: widespread drought in the US, dwindling arctic sea cover, and Hurricane Sandy. None of this awakening is in any way related to the science.

1. Drought
Drought is not only far from a freak occurence by itself, so to link it to climate change one must conclude that it is unusual that 62% of the US is exposed to drought. Except that there is compelling evidence that this drought is well within historical trends for the region, and that it has been much drier even during recorded post-colonial history.

2. Arctic sea ice lower extent
Your phrase “covering less than half of the area that would have been typical just four decades ago” is problematic. Four decades ago there was nothing “typical” since that’s exactly when we started holding consistent and comparable records (1978, to be precise). Arctic sea ice measurements are one of the weakest records of weather we have. This doesn’t mean that it isn’t a cause to worry, but what it does mean is that it’s inadequate to draw too many conclusions on this.

3. Hurricane Sandy
I agree that lots of people started paying attention to the theory of climate change as a result of the hurricane, but this as well is highly problematic. How is this linked to climate change? Have there been hurricanes before? Yes. Have there been hurricanes more severe before? Yes. Have there been hurricanes going as far North before? Yes. So what’s special about this one? It happened in 2012 in a major world city. That’s it really.

Therefore, if the world truly is awakening to climate change as a result of the above, and not through convincing the public through arguments and a better understanding of the science behind it, I fail to see how this is a science story for 2012. It’s actually rather depressing. It’s like convincing children that a hot stove is dangerous by hiding a crazy clown in the oven.